Ketogenic low-carb, high-fat diet could be useful in brain cancer - at
least in mice - according to the new Boston College study. Its press
release is on the web page

BC biologists identify alternative brain cancer treatment
High-fat, low-carbohydrate diet significantly slows tumor growth and
enhances health in mice
<http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/bc-bbi021907.php>

Excerpts:

   "... The biologists found that KetoCal, a
   commercially available high-fat, low-carbohydrate
   diet designed to treat epilepsy in children, can
   significantly decrease the growth of brain tumors in
   laboratory mice. Moreover, the diet significantly
   enhanced health and survival rates relative to mice
   in control groups who consumed a standard low-fat,
   high-carbohydrate diet.

   The findings were based on a study published this
   week in the online journal Nutrition & Metabolism.

   "KetoCal represents a novel alternative therapy for
   malignant brain cancer," said Boston College Biology
   Professor Tom Seyfried, who conceived and supervised
   the study. "While the tumors did not vanish in the
   mice who received the strict KetoCal diet, they got
   significantly smaller and the animals lived
   significantly longer. And compared to radiation,
   chemotherapy and surgery, KetoCal is a relatively
   inexpensive treatment option."

   [...]
   
   Malignant brain cancer is one of the most lethal
   types of cancer in adults and is the second leading
   cause of cancer death in children. Many current ways
   of treating the disease fail to provide long-term
   management because they ineffectively target tumor
   cells and harm the health and vitality of normal
   brain cells.
   
   The KetoCal diet gets around this dilemma by
   essentially starving the brain tumor cells of the
   sugary molecules on which they rely for growth and
   survival. Because of its special composition, the
   diet deprives the tumor cells of the glucose they
   need; at the same time, the diet provides normal
   brain cells with ketones, a class of organic
   compounds they can metabolize effectively but the
   tumor cells cannot. ..."